By Faith Colson
Although the dangers of social media are finally being recognized and discussed, there seems to be a collective blind spot for similar dangers at school. While no school district wants to expose students to harm, more and more districts are issuing digital devices such as computers and iPads to children. Yes, there are firewalls and filters, and both software and educators to monitor use. But is that enough?
Sadly, the answer is no, not always. For example, I know of a third grader who opened online accounts on her school device without adult knowledge. A sixth grader on an educational website opened a tech support ticket and was emailed by an employee—who provided his personal cell phone number. An eighth grader used a proxy server on his school device to view pornographic content, and the alert system’s time delay meant that he was able to access this for several minutes before an adult knew. All of these things happened during the school day, during an instructional class period, despite there being an adult in the room to supervise students and filtering software on student devices.
Additionally, some online games with chat features can be accessed on school devices and districts can issue email accounts even to young children. If steps are not taken to block access to these features, they collectively open the door for our kids to interact with strangers or communicate online with adults. A 12-year-old student was propositioned and sent pornographic material on her school device, and despite the harm done to this student, the school punished the student.
Years ago, if a curious adolescent brought porn to school, it was taken away and they were disciplined. Now, schools may indirectly provide access by putting a device in the students’ hands. Even if hard core porn is generally blocked, what about soft porn like sexually suggestive anime and female wrestling videos?
While we preach the dangers of drug use, we don’t stock the cafeteria with drugs and then punish those who steal them—we simply have drug free campuses! If kids are smart enough to get around filters and use proxy servers, then kids are too smart to have 20 plus devices in a room with only one adult to supervise them. This is an impossible task for teachers, whose main responsibility is to cover their content area, not to police internet use.
Children do not grasp the permanence of the internet or the reach of internet communication. Children do not grasp how early porn exposure can desensitize them and wreak havoc on their future. Schools need to take this seriously and proactively address the risks of children being addicted, exploited, and bullied when using the very devices that schools are now requiring for online assignments. Beyond the scope of this article are student privacy concerns. For instance, educational software companies request private student information on school devices. More information can be found on the Screens and Kids blog by parent advocate Cindy Eckard.
What can you do as a parent to keep your children safe?
- Start the conversation with your school district
Depending on your child’s age and school district size, this may entail talking with both the teacher(s) and the campus administrators. Keep in mind that there may be state requirements for the use of technology, such as online standardized tests. Therefore, approach the school with the goal of finding safety solutions within those state parameters. You can talk to the superintendent or speak at a school board meeting to raise awareness about the potential dangers and to encourage proactive steps to prevent them.
- Set age-appropriate boundaries for your children
Age-appropriate boundaries are crucial in all aspects of life, but especially when it comes to technology. In our home, one of the ways we keep our children safe is by simply not providing access to a personal, internet-enabled device. We have a desktop in a public place and any internet use is supervised. If your students bring their school devices home, you can check their browser history and store the device in a public place. You can check what is searchable from home, off the school network, by typing in certain words that could populate pornographic content. Consider telling the school if you plan to do this check, because you may trigger an alert if you type certain words. If the device is to be sent home over summer break, you can politely decline.
If your child’s device stays at school, you can ask for the opportunity to view the device and check the browser history. Depending on the platform, you can remotely log in to your child’s account from home (i.e. Google classroom) or check his or her email (check both the inbox and sent emails). These checks may provide you with evidence to ask for additional safeguards/restrictions for your child’s device, such as blocking YouTube (if the browser history shows that it’s being viewed during instructional time) or disabling email (if it’s being used for noneducational or unsafe reasons).
- Continue talking to your children about online safety
Your school or district may not employ the amount of restrictions you prefer, and even if they listen and want to help, kids are clever and often outsmart our best intentions. Therefore, part of the solution is to train our children. Educate and Empower Kids has many resources on this topic, so just keep in mind that as you talk to your kids about inappropriate images and online safety, they need to know that the same safety protocols we are teaching them for home need to be followed at school.
With that in mind, if your kids share that they were able to access something inappropriate or if you find that they have been contacted by a stranger on their school device, alert the school’s administrators—you are then contributing not just to your own child’s safety but to the safety of the entire student body.
We are truly living in challenging times, trying to parent in a world so saturated in technology, but we as parents are in the best position to both train our children and advocate on their behalf. And they are worth the fight!
For more ideas on how to moderate media and screen usage, as well as educating kids on how to keep themselves safe online, try out our books Noah’s New Phone: A Story About Using Technology for Good and Conversations with My Kids: 30 Essential Family Discussions for the Digital Age.
Faith Colson is a parent advocate who has worked with legislators on education policy in multiple states, including Texas, where she now resides with her husband and three school-age children.
Citations:
Eckard, C. Screens and Kids [@Screensandkids]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/screensandkids
Gaynor, A. (2022, February 11). Children's Privacy. Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/privacy-security/childrens-privacy
Hebert, A., Hernandez, A., Perkins, R., Puig, A., Tressler, C., Specialist, C. E., username01, Gray, M., Mick, Dancer, Doug, 2016, C. pringle, A., P., EA, A., Librarian, R., Lcw, Inesc, & Staff, F. T. C. (2022, June 2). Back to school: Protect your child's information. Consumer Advice. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2018/08/back-school-protect-your-childs-information
Kardaras N. Glow Kids. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2016.
State Student Privacy Laws . Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://studentprivacymatters.org/state-legislation/
